Judge won't dismiss Filipinos' trafficking case

NEW ORLEANS 
A federal judge in California has refused to dismiss human trafficking accusations in a lawsuit filed by teachers recruited from the Philippines to work in Louisiana.

The lawsuit was filed last year by a group of teachers against California-based Universal Placement International Inc. and its owner, Lourdes "Lulu" Navarro.

Navarro's attorney stressed Thursday that the judge did not rule on the merits of the case, only that the allegations can remain part of the lawsuit.

"We're at a very preliminary stage of the proceedings and all the judge said was that the case can go forward," lawyer Don A. Hernandez said.

Teachers complained they had to borrow money to pay thousands of dollars charged by the company, as much as $16,000 in some cases, before ever leaving the Philippines. More unexpected fees and expensive legal entanglements followed once the teachers arrived in the United States, the lawsuit claims. For example, contracts were required in which the teachers agreed to pay a percentage of their monthly income to Universal, along with fees for arranging housing.

Passports and visas were confiscated to ensure the fees would be paid, the lawsuit said.

In the lawsuit, the teachers claim the threat of huge debt and loss of their visas amounted to illegal coercion under a federal law against human trafficking passed by Congress in 2000.

The judge dismissed the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board as a defendant in the human trafficking charges, saying the federal law does not cover municipal governments. But he said the teachers can pursue the human trafficking case against Universal Placement, Navarro and a human resources official for the school board.

"Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that defendants threatened the abuse of legal process and serious harm to provide forced labor," U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford wrote.

Hernandez said the case boils down to a simple contract dispute.

"These teachers, that are living openly and freely, have well-paying jobs," Hernandez said, adding that they earn much more in Louisiana than they could earn in the Philippines.

Lawyers with the Southern Poverty Law Center are representing the teachers. They said the series of rulings made public Wednesday are significant because they recognize the breadth of the trafficking law.

"Although this case does not involve physical restraint, as is common in some human trafficking cases, the court still held that the Trafficking Act is violated when individuals are subjected to serious harm by forcing them into such crushing debt that they have no choice but to comply with the recruiters' and-or employers' demands," James Knoepp, an attorney with the SPLC, said in an email.